Eyes Wide Shut

 A Film Review by Roger Crow


United States, 1999
UK Release Date: September 99
Running Length: 2:40
BBFC Classification: 18 (Graphic sex, frequent nudity, profanity)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Cast: Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack, Todd Field, Marie Richardson, Rade Serbedzija, Vinessa Shaw, Leelee Sobieski
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Producer: Stanley Kubrick
Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick & Frederic Raphael, based on the novel Traumnovelle by Arthur Schnitzler
Cinematography: Larry Smith
Music: Jocelyn Pook
UK Distributor: Warner Brothers


He transformed the London docklands into a Vietnam battleground for Full Metal Jacket, created one of the greatest special effects movies in history (2001) and directed one of the biggest cult films few people have ever seen (A Clockwork Orange).


Stanly Kubrick was a director that challenged your perception of cinema and although many found his work emotionally cold, he was a man that set trends - and the rest of the movie world followed.


Always technically brilliant, morally intriguing and with far more weight than your average big-budget low-brain concoction, Kubrick's films such as Paths of Glory, Lolita and Spartacus caused controversy and awe in equal measure.


However, Stan was not the sort of bloke to churn his films out at a rate of knots. In fact in the last 20 years of his life he made a mere three, and those that he did make were nearly all shot in London because he hated to fly.


The Bronx-born director was nothing if not precise. While shooting an actor crossing the street in 1980's The Shining, it took 96 takes before the film-maker was happy with arguably the simplest of shots.


Rumour also had it that while on the set of Full Metal Jacket, he was driving to work through the streets of palm trees specially imported for the movie. An assistant chatting to the bearded movie legend noticed that he was clearly disturbed by something.


On being asked what the problem was, the director remarked that he knew the serial numbers of each tree and was wondering why one was out of sequence.

In the final yerars of his life, he divided his time between AI (a state-of-the-art sci-fi drama which looks like being directed by Steven Spielberg at some point) and the Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman project Eyes Wide Shut.


The latter finally did see the light of day in the country he adopted as his home last September and it divided the critics.

For me, the tale of psychiatrist Tom Cruise on a sexual odyssey gripped from the word go, despite the fact that in some scenes he could have been played by a cardboard cutout.


Cruise's limitations as an actor stem from the fact that he's a good-looking bloke who blows hot and cold - with little expression inbetween.


Smiley, angry and back to smiley again.

His wife Nicole Kidman, on the other hand, blows him out of the water every time they appear on screen together. So it's good, for his sake, that for the bulk of this movie, they are separated.

The movie opens with an opulent party in which Tom goes off with a couple of models and Nicole gets seduced by a handsome euro stranger (Rade Serbedzija) in the Julio Iglesias mould.

Cruise is whisked away at the behest of friend - Sidney Pollack (standing in after Harvey Keitel was dropped from the movie).

A naked hooker has overdosed and Sid is naturally on edge as Tom manages to work his medical magic.


It's during this time that the handsome stranger weaves his own blend of magic on the slightly sozzled Nicole.

All works out well and Nicole does manage to control herself depite being tempted by Julioalike.

Back at their opulent New York apartment, Kidman's character gets high, reveals a little too much about a fling she once had with a sailor and before their marital problems can be resolved, Tom is called to the bedside of a dying friend.


His nocturnal quest to find some sort of meaning to his life leads him to a jazz club where an old friend is working. The pianist lets slip of an unusual gig he is assigned to every once in a while and Tom's interest is piqued by the fact that it is like nothing on earth. The world's most beautiful women and more forbidden pleasures than he can shake a stethoscope at.


However, Cruise must attend armed with a password, a cloak and a mask.

Kubrick takes a sharp left turn into the realms of sueed surreal comedy as Cruise attempts to buy the aid items from an eccentric costume shop owner in the early hours.

His daughter has been messing around with a band of perverted Asian types and after a while, you wonder if you're watching the same movie.

Cruise eventually does make it to the mysterious lodge and enters what turns out to be one of the submiersible units Kubrick used to describe you needed in order to make a great film.

In all, you need six scenes that are watertight to criticism and the final movie should stay afloat.


The ensuing orgy with a cast of nubile, masked women and a mass of very horny men makes for one of the most stunning pieces of cinema Kubrick has ever devised. Thankfully I didn't see the digitally doctored American version - clearly the work of prudish editors who fear an X certificate.


Not since the days of a knickerless Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct has a scene shocked and amazed in equal measure.

Before long, Cruise is found out as an imposter and is ordered to disrobe.

Luckily, he is saved from an enigmatic fate by a woman who steps forward and is taken instead. Cruise is sent into the night with his tail between his legs.


The rest of the movie finds our hero followed by a stranger to the simple yet chilling few chords of a piano solo; a cringe-makingly awful scene in a snooker room with Pollack and Cruise and a redemption of sorts between Tinseltown's golden couple.

Like most Hollywood films these days, it's half an hour too long but Kubrick's swansong, although flawed, is still a mesmerising piece of movie-making with some great photography, set design and many moments that stay with you for many months - and probably years - after the film is over.


See it on the big screen if you can and despite the lengthy running time, keep those eyes wide open.


If you're a Tom Cruise fan, check out these related features:

Interview with the Vampire

Mission: Impossible

© Text and art; 1996/2000 Roger Crow

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